La Pute

6

When it came to Le Cœur, Jean-Baptiste Maxence was the heart. People loved to see someone stand their ground yet express their humanity by making decisions in the heat of the moment. Whether they acknowledged it or not, what they were drawn to in Maxence was his flawed nature.

Yet, if Maxence was its heart, Vauquelin was the mind. Existing with no demands and with no sense of fulfillment. Not only was he aware of his own role in this vessel, but also that of every person who breathed the same air as him. There were veins and there were thoughts, some that would soon be forgotten, and those that were much more significant than they could comprehend. Florence may not have been replaceable in this vessel, but that alone did not deem her significant.

She was the blood.

Before she met Vauquelin, she moved along the coastline from east to west. At the time she did not think that her wandering would end at Marseille, where she would wander the hot pebble streets for years to come.

She lifted boxes. She piled them on top of one another and never bothered to know what happened to them from there on. She was not even concerned about what was inside nor was she allowed to look. But she knew.

But this was all in 1966, and back then Florence had yet to learn the concept of curiosity. Some called it a gift, something that only humans possessed. Florence wasn't curious about what was in the boxes, but that wasn't the reason she did not look inside them. The reason was the man peering at her from the deck, who would notice if she had a glint of curiosity in her. And if she did, he would kill her.

The following month Florence met Vauquelin for the first time. He approached her one night at the docks when she was finishing up work for the day and the man from the deck was no longer there. Although Vauquelin appeared kind and harmless, even Florence could tell that the predator often guised itself as prey. When she thought back to it years later, she wondered why out of a sea of lawless nomads would Vauquelin choose her. At first she thought that the reason was the same as for the man from the deck; her being devoid of curiosity and perfectly apathetic, but Vauquelin showed her otherwise.

"You don't need to carry the burden of your actions", he spoke while reaching for a business card from his pocket and handed it to Florence.

The next day the man no longer appeared on the deck, but neither were there any boxes for Florence to lift.

Follow the river and you will find me.

Follow me and you will find the Heart.